Blog - Page 16 of 29 - Teton Fly Fishing -Jackson Hole

Small water

July 10, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

As some of you know, I have a soft spot for small wild trout streams. The other day I had the pleasure of introducing Ross and his son George to one of my favorites. Streams like this are never featured in magazines or on “current fishing condition” boards at the local shops. They are however as wild a place to fish for trout as you can imagine and full of eager brook trout and cutthroat. Over the course of the day, both anglers enjoyed the small water; catching pan size trout on bushy stimulators. Here’s to the small water and the beautiful trout that inhabit them!

George and Ross working the water with dry flies…

Ross showing off one of his many trout from the day

Two happy anglers…

Long days and biting fish

July 2, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

After taking some great folks fishing up in Yellowstone last
week, including a fun return client from Texas, AND providing
my brother and his lovely wife a luxurious comfortable futon for a few
days, I found myself with two free days and a desire to check
on a favorite native cutthroat stream of mine. Jamie joined
me and boy did we have a great day. Long slow pools were full
of eager Snake River Finespotted cutthroat trout. We traded
casts, throwing big, bushy Stimulators and Sofa Pillows to
likely runs and rising trout. All in all a great way to spend a
Monday; capped off with streamside cans of cold Coors.
Today’s another beauty here in Jackson Hole. I’m gearing up
for some guided trips this week into the Shoshone National
Forest with guests. Should be a blast fishing dry flies to wild,
aggressive fish. In the meantime, I got a brisket smoking I
should get back too. Happy 4th to everyone!

Mark celebrates his birthday in style with a Firehole
brown trout. Abundant caddis made for fun fishing and the
Grizzly sighting only added to a fine day on the water!

Jamie releases a jewel of a cutthroat trout.

Jamie hooking up on a nice pool. It seemed every
fish in the stream wanted her fly!

Firehole River Fly Fishing

June 21, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

It was a good week of fishing around here in Jackson Hole. Several wade fishing trips proved successful despite some colder weather.

I had the pleasure of taking Kevin C. from Chicago up to Yellowstone National Park Thursday and introducing him to the Firehole River. Water clarity and levels are ideal up there and we had a great day hooking acrobatic rainbows and browns (some of which jumped four feet out of the water when hooked!). We started off swinging wetflies, then switched to various PMD patterns to target rising fish. In addition to great fishing, we got to see some of the sights and animals that make Yellowstone famous. A fine way to spend a day on the water and a fine angling job done by Kevin!

A pretty Firehole River brown trout that took a well presented PMD cripple off the surface..

Kevin showing off one of many trout brought to hand over the course of our day in Yellowstone. Note the steam from the geyser basin..

The coming week should be a good one too. Temperatures are warming up again and fishing will continue to be good. Hopefully this warm weather will help get the Green river in shape so I can start taking folks float fishing on the upper Green river. In the meantime, Yellowstone’s not a bad place to be!

Fishing in June sunshine!

June 11, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

It seems like we’ve stumbled into summer around here.
Temperatures in Jackson Hole lately have been around 70 and
daily sunshine is melting away our snowpack. While rivers in
the region remain high, there are certainly plenty of fishy
options.

First evenin’ fish of the summer! This beautiful
brown trout inspected my size 6 Sofa Pillow three times before
deciding to take the tiny Copper John dropper…

For the next month and a half (well really all
season), Yellowstone National Park is a great place to
go fly fishing. Waters in the southwestern part of the park
(Firehole, Madison, Lewis, Gibbon, Nez Perce) all fish best this
time of year, providing anglers with good hatches of PMDs and
caddis. The Firehole canyon also gets a salmonfly hatch at the
end of the month. If you’re into casting BIG dry flies, this can
be a fun place to be. Area lakes are also fishing well around
the valley. Most smaller, hike-in lakes below 8,000 feet are
free of ice and crystal clear. These are fun to spend a day at;
pack your lunch, a fly rod and do a little exploring. Jamie and I
hiked into Bearpaw lake in the Tetons the other afternoon.
Fish were active, but so were the mosquitos!

After a long hike in to this fantastic Yellowstone
cutthroat fishery, I found half the lake ice free. Quickly rigging
up a rod, I landed a nice bright cutt. Unfortunately storms
rolled in with high winds, snow and sleet, forcing a hasty
retreat.

The Grizzlies bears are out and about. This guy was
feeding on grass along Togwotee pass..

We’re headed out this afternoon to the fishing cabin in
Dubois to get it ready for summer guests. Also planning on
checking some trout waters… More to come…

weekend fly fishing in the Greater Yellowstone region

May 27, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

Had the Pleasure of fishing some folks from neighboring CO this
past weekend. Richard and his wife were treated to some great
Wyoming lake fly fishing, catching rainbow and brown trout on
various leech patterns. It was great to get the drift boat out and
spend all day floating on clear water in warm sunshine! In the
weeks to come, I am looking forward to more great stillwater
fishing in addition to some trips up to Yellowstone National Park
to fly fish. Reports up there indicate that the upper Firehole river
is holding its own. I expect some great dry fly fishing to begin on
it in the next week or so. Also, the Firehole canyon is a great
place to hit the salmon fly hatch in a few weeks. If anyone is
interested in a fun guided fishing trip, give a call or shoot an
email!

What’s inside?

May 22, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

Many know that Lake trout are predatory, feeding on smaller
fish as well as many other things. My unscientific study
confirmed this the other day when I cleaned a Laker for dinner.
It seems this time of year smaller fish and leeches make up a
good portion of their diet. So for all of you getting out this
upcoming weekend to cast at cruising lakers, it might be a good
idea to fish white/blue/olive baitfish patterns and simple leech
patterns…

and yes, the grilled Lake trout was delicious

Lake Trout and streamers

May 16, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

Every spring, as area rivers turn brown with runoff,
anglers turn their attention to the many lakes around here in
western Wyoming. As soon as ice comes off and waters
shimmer with hues of turquoise and cobalt, lake trout become
a viable fly rod option.

Ice off… Time to target Lake trout at Leek’s
Marina

Today we took a run up to Jackson Lake to see what was
happening. While still having some ice on it, there was quite a
bit of open water too allowing us to fish streamers on sinking
lines from the shore. Fish were caught and we were able to
cast without wearing down jackets (a first this spring!). While it
was exciting landing some good size lake trout, the highlight of
the day was definitely watching a Grizzly bear walk along the
oxbow of the Snake river.

Typical fly rod caught Mackinaw on Jackson
Lake

With warm temperatures making a comeback, many rivers
and streams in the region are becoming unfishable. Fear not
though, if you know where to go, there are plenty of good
fishing options around. In addition to lakes, Yellowstone
National Park will open for the 2014 fishing season next
weekend. If you’re visiting the area and want to fish this or
some other cool trout waters, give me a call.

Big weekend of Fly Fishing

May 7, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

Had the pleasure of fishing with long time friend, Kurt, the
past couple days. After a long hiatus, Kurt managed to sneak
out for a long weekend. We divided time between the Dubois
area and Jackson. While many area waters are blown out due
to spring runoff, we had a few tricks up our sleeve. The best
day by far was on the Bighorn, where Kurt experienced some
fine tailwater fishing. The wind proved challenging on some
other waters, but we managed a few fish here and there,
making the most of our three day fishing adventure.

Here’s Kurt showing off a nice brown he caught just hours
after touching down in Jackson…

Kurt on the lake

Our day on the Bighorn was beautiful. A lot of fish were
caught subsurface, but by late afternoon, fish were rising all
over the river. Kurt decided to hop out of the boat after seeing
several sizeable browns feeding in this eddy.

Wading the Bighorn

Releasing a nice brown

Bighorn release

Rainbow that fell for a grey Ray Charles…

Kurts rainbow

On the drive back to Jackson, we swung up to the oxbow
in hopes of seeing a Grizzly bear that’s been out and about.
Timing is everything, and we got to watch the bear feed
amongst the willows. His tracks were fresh…

on the trail of a grizz

Overall we had a great time and good to get out on the
water and catch up. Hopefully we can do it again next year. In
the meantime, I’m headed down to CO tomorrow to visit
friends and meet the newest member of their clan. Word is
there’s a few feeder streams that are fishing well. We’ll see….

Management of Yellowstone Lake Fisheries

April 30, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

Last night, fisheries biologists from Yellowstone National
Park and members of Wyoming Trout Unlimited gave a great
presentation on the Parks ongoing efforts to save and restore
native cutthroat trout populations. As some of you know, the
park has been waging an aggressive campaign to save the
Yellowstone lake cutthroat by killing invasive Lake Trout.

Lake Trout (mackinaw) were illegally introduced to
Yellowstone lake somtime in the ’80s and have dramatically
reduced the native cutthroat trout in the lake over the years.
Fortunately the Park is making progress fighting the invasion,
killing more and more Lakers over the years. Unfortunately
there’s a lot of misinformation out there waged by a select
few folks who like catching lake trout and have a surplus of
time on their hands. It’s clear that Lake trout are killing
Yellowstone cutthroat and wreck havoc on the entire
ecosystem; an ecosystem that depends on the Yellowstone
Lake cutthroat to thrive. I for one am glad the Park and its
supporters are working so hard to save and protect this
amazing fishery.

Also, the Park is in the process of restoring native
Grayling, Yellowstone and Westslope Cutthroat to a few select
streams in the park. Check out the link below to learn more
about the Parks management plan and learn facts about their
battle.

http://wyomingtu.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/Science-Supporting-Management-of-
Yellowstone-Lake-Fisheries.pdf

Here’s a recent article by Ted Williams that appears in this
springs “Fly Rod and Reel Magazine”:

http://www.flyrodreel.com/node/25415

Simple

April 27, 2014/0 Comments/in /by testing

Turns out, simple CAN be better. A few days back I ran
over to Dubois to do a little preseason work on the cabin.
Since the weather was lousy and I was planning to only spend
a night, I didn’t take my fishing gear with me. Once there
though I started thinking about fishing; turns out the weather
wasn’t quite as bad as predicted and Jamie told me to stay
and she’d come over with some friends at the end of the
week. With an unexpected free day, thinking
about fishing turned to going fishing. The only
problem was that my gear was at home. Fortunately I
remembered having a 4wt bamboo rod at the cabin as well as
a cheap reel with embarrassingly old fly line on it. Combine
those with one fly box of random patterns and a few spools of
tippet, and I was in business!

So off I drove, determined to make the most of my day.
To make a long story short, the wind was better than expected
and I found fish rising occasionally to emerging midges. For
the better part of the morning and early afternoon I had a
blast trying to control angry brown trout with my uber-slow,
soft tipped 4 wt rod.